Customizing the password popup window

PASSWORD TRICKS

We’ll show you some tricks for configuring the root password popup window on Red Hat-based systems.

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux or a Red Hat derivative such as Fedora Core or CentOS, you are probably familiar with the popup window that asks you for the root password before you can launch a program that should run as root (Figure 1). Most programs that use this authentication mechanism are tools that need extra privileges on the system. An example of this kind of tool is a program that requires access to a raw network device or a program that needs write access to directories with configuration information.

Backdoors give attackers unrestricted access to a zombie system. If you plan to stop the bad guys from settling in, you’ll be interested in this analysis of the tools they might use for building a private entrance.